Love & Gelato - by Jenna Evans Welch

About the Book

"After her mother dies, Lina travels to Italy where she discovers her mothers's journal and sets off on an adventure to unearth her mother's secrets"--

Book Synopsis

A New York Times bestseller

A summer in Italy turns into a road trip across Tuscany in this sweeping debut novel filled with romance, mystery, and adventure.

Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn't in the mood for Italy's famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She's only there because it was her mother's dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn't around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.

But then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina's uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother's footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept from Lina for far too long. It's a secret that will change everything she knew about her mother, her father--and even herself.

People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.

Review Quotes

Lina narrates in a breezy style, her mother's journal entries interwoven to provide revelations at carefully paced intervals.Seasoned with luscious descriptions of Renaissance architecture and Italianfood, a sure bet for fans of romance fiction and armchair travel.--Kirkus

Lina's capacity for and understanding of love transform beautifullyover the course of the novel; the book is not solely about her personal romance but also other characters' interwoven love stories. A good addition for teens with wanderlust.--School Library Journal

Readers will be caught up in this story of romance, family, and what it really means to be loved.--Booklist Online

The reader will find it difficult to put this book down.--VOYA starred review